Pull on a cape to take part in the St Giles Hospice Hero Walk

Do you have what it takes to become a hero for St Giles Hospice? St Giles is summoning caped crusaders and fundraising families to Lichfield’s Beacon Park for its Hero Walk on Saturday 25th September – and is calling on people to celebrate their own heroes in style as they take part in the event.

People are encouraged to dress up as their favourite hero before tackling a 5km walk with a series of fun challenges along the way. The event is suitable for all the family and all funds raised will support hospice care for patients and their families who are living with a terminal illness.

Zoe Wright, Events Manager at St Giles Hospice said: “Whether you’re in fancy dress or looking for something fun and exciting to do, our Hero Walk is a great day out. We’re calling on our community to pull on their capes and show they care by walking for their hero. 

“Our Hero Walk has activities and entertainment for everyone – including doggie sidekicks. The fun begins at the hero hub, where all of our heroes will be assembling. You can enjoy games, refreshments and pose for some super family snaps before setting off on your activity adventure. 

“There are also awesome activities along the route to test your hero skills to the limit and a hero’s welcome awaits when you cross the finish line to collect your medal. So please sign up to make memories in a mask and celebrate your own heroes – and by raising funds for St Giles as you go, you will become a hero of ours too.”

St Giles Hospice’s first-ever Hero Walk, held at Walsall Arboretum in 2019, was a huge success. The event was due to return last year, but had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• 

• 

• 

One of the superheroes at the inaugural event was Louise Harding, from Willenhall, who took part in memory of her Nan, Lavinia Layton, who received end of life care at St Giles Hospice before her death in June 2019 at the age of 93.

Louise said: “My Nan got exactly the care she needed at St Giles – one-to-one care tailored to her. They were always ready to help us and people were there straight away when we needed support, which makes a huge difference for both the patient and the family.”

Three months after her Nan died, Louise put together a team of superheroes, including friends and three pet dogs, and dressed up as Batgirl to do the Hero Walk in memory of Lavinia.

“The Hero Walk was a celebration of Nan and a way to thank St Giles for the support they gave us to comfort her, as well as for letting us spend time with her until the very end,” added Louise.

“St Giles Hospice is such a valuable service for the area and we wanted to raise funds for the future so that St Giles would be there for other families like ours. The Hero Walk was really special because everyone was walking for a reason. Everyone had their own superhero in mind, which gave it a real meaning.”

The 5km family walk and fun day will kick off at 11am on Saturday 25th September in Beacon Park, Lichfield, with a welcome speech at 11.30am before the walk starts at 12pm. Entry is £3 for under threes, £6 for under 16s, £10 for adults and £30 for a family ticket (two adults and two children). Doggie sidekicks can take part for free!

Zoe added: “All heroes are encouraged to arrive in their costumes ready to leap into action and help raise funds for their local hospice. If you’d like to take on the challenge in true hero style, St Giles capes can be pre-ordered or bought on the day for a £5 donation.

“The entry fee only covers the administration cost of Hero Walk, but by asking friends and family to sponsor you, you will raise valuable funds to help us continue to provide care and support, free of charge, for patients and their families.

“Raising £40 in sponsorship could pay for one hour of our Advice and Referrals team, £202 could pay for visits to a patient in their own home by our community nurses and £676 could pay for 24 hours of hospice care for a patient at the end of their life.”

For more information about the St Giles Hospice Hero Walk, please visit www.stgileshospice.com/herowalk

• 

The Gracechurch Centre set to host community arts project celebrating life after lockdown

As part of its ongoing commitment to supporting the local community, The Gracechurch Centre will be collaborating with a local art collective to relaunch an art gallery within the shopping centre for the first time since lockdown, giving a platform to showcase Sutton Coldfield’s budding artists.

Direct Art Action (UK) is a small charity working within the West Midlands which aims to bring back art into the local community by working with retail destinations like The Gracechurch Centre to repurpose vacant units as galleries.

Charity spokesperson, Katie Hammond herself a local artist and proud Suttonian, explains that the charity saw an opportunity to turn the adversity of the pandemic and successive lockdowns into a source of strength and hope for others by bringing art to the wider public.

The gallery has an exciting body of work that will be refreshed to reflect a new topic each month.

Katie is currently working on a new community art piece centred on the theme of ‘hope and is appealing for the support of local people in creating a community art installation. In native American culture, a pale butterfly is a symbol of hope, and throughout September, starting on Saturday 4 September, Katie will be holding free Saturday drop-in sessions where people can learn to fold an origami butterfly, that will eventually create a wall of butterflies, which will act as a wall of hope.

Throughout autumn and winter, the gallery will also feature an array of artwork based on a variety of topics, such as the environment. As part of this, Katie and the team of volunteers that make up Direct Art Action UK, will be looking at initiatives to raise awareness of a whole host of environmental issues.

One such example will be a scheme to collect and repurpose crisp packets as survival blankets for the homeless, minimising the environmental impact of these single use plastic materials while contributing to the safety and wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable people within society.

Angela Henderson, Centre Manager of The Gracechurch Centre, said: “We’re very pleased to be supporting the Direct Art Action UK art gallery as we feel art can be a real force for good within our society. Initiatives like this are a great way to showcase the talent that is on offer within our town and we’d encourage people to get involved and support projects which make a positive impact.

“We see our centre as an important community hub within Sutton Coldfield, and by offering our vacant space to help support local charitable organisations, we can give something back, making Sutton Coldfield an even more special place in which to live.”

Gallery manager and local artist Katie Hammond added: “Just before lockdown one, I completed my first community art project – The Peace Project. I held free drop-in origami sessions, where I got the people of Sutton Coldfield folding 1000 paper cranes to form a Senbazuru.

“Like many, lockdown was hard for me – missing normality, friends and family, and it was during this time that I got the idea for my next community art project. ‘Hope’, will hopefully demonstrate that even in the darkest of times, even though you may not feel like it, you can find hope.”

Below is a list of Direct Art Action’s programme of summer activities from its new home at the Gracechurch Centre:

Friday 20th August – Butterfly sun catcher making drop in session
Friday 27th August – A class on creating Kandinsky rock art
Saturday 28th August – ‘Tropical Day’ watermelon pinwheel making masterclass

Fundraising drive to meet growing demand

A support centre in Sutton Coldfield offering a lifeline to cancer patients across the Midlands, has launched a new fundraising drive as it prepares to reopen post-lockdown and meet growing demand.

The Cancer Support Centre, in Lindridge Road, was unable to run its normal fundraising events during the pandemic, but it survived thanks to grant aid and individual supporters taking part in sponsored events.

Now with demand growing again, it is looking to raise even more funds and is setting up a new dedicated team to help raise £150,000 or more to support people who have been affected by cancer and delays in treatment.

Jackie Price, centre manager, said: “Lockdown had a big impact on our fundraising. Events had to be cancelled and money stopped coming in. We are trying to find new ways to raise money, but it has been very difficult.

“We used to raise £3,000 a week on average for the service, through donations, events and so on, but this has dropped off over lockdown.

“We were incredibly fortunate to have survived lockdown due to grant funding, and are doing ok so far this year with our supporters doing an amazing job in raising funds.

“As we open up again and demand grows, the pressure to raise enough funds to help all that desperately need support is increasing in a very challenging environment. We are focusing on the future and the need to ensure that we will be able to raise around the £150,000 required to get back to our previous capacity and potentially more.

“For this reason, we are looking to set up a team who will develop different fundraising events and make new links with local businesses for support.”

• 

Jackie said the centre, in Lindridge Road, which is shared with St Giles Hospice but is run independently, covered the whole of the Midlands area and had even had a client as far away as Devon.

Before the pandemic, it offered face-to-face support through counselling and therapy sessions and provided a space for those with cancer to come and feel safe and supported.

During lockdown many of the talking therapies moved to online or phone services so ensure people could still access the help needed. The centre also launched a YouTube channel for clients which grew to 400 hits per month.

Jackie said: “We work holistically – mind, body and spirit. Everyone’s support needs are very different so the therapies are tailored to the individual. One of the main things we do is give people back control – when they are diagnosed, they might feel as though they’re on a treadmill, being told what to do and where to go. We help them take control of the situation and manage their own needs.

“Traditionally, we had group sessions and clients could drop in to talk to someone, but that came to a stop in lockdown. There were calls to close the service, but we kept going and offered sessions on Zoom and talking therapies over the phone.

“Lots of people were seeing their treatment cancelled or postponed and stress and anxiety levels were high; it was a horrendous situation and we were needed more than ever.”

Jackie said pre-Covid the centre was helping around 500 clients in person, but this had fallen to around 250.

Numbers are now rising as existing and new clients slowly return and the centre is offering appointments, with all Covid safety measures still in place to ensure vulnerable clients are safe.

Jackie, who was diagnosed with breast cancer herself in 2017 and was supported by her colleagues during her treatment, said she knew it was a big step for those with a cancer diagnosis to ask for support.

“It means you have to accept that you have cancer,” she said. “But we are here to help. There are lots of people out there in need of support and someone to talk to. Come to us, we can help you and give support that you might not even know that you need.”

Jackie, who was given the all-clear in 2019, added: “It’s important that people know it’s not something that they have to do on their own. They can call us or email us if they prefer.”

The centre is looking for volunteers to fill roles on the community and business engagement team and the fundraising/marketing team to help with the new funds drive.

Anyone who can help or would like to get in touch with the centre, should email info@suttoncancersupport.org

For more details, visit the website at www.suttoncancersupport.org

From Gillian Whittingham (Police, PCSO, Four Oaks)

On Monday 16th August 2021 between 10am and 12pm, there will be a litter pick in the Mere Green area.

We will be meeting outside the Ark Community Church on St James Road, Mere Green, B75 5EH.

Look forward to seeing you there.

• 

• 

People in Sutton Coldfield are being advised that booster Covid vaccine shots and flu jabs will start being administered from early next month.

From Monday 6th September 2021, Sutton Coldfield Group Practice will be co-administering the third dose COVID-19 Booster Vaccine and the Influenza Vaccine at the Sutton Town Hall for patient’s registered with the Sutton Coldfield Group Practice (SCGP), Ashfield Surgery, Manor Practice and Hawthorns Surgery.

This is to maximise protection of the most vulnerable ahead of the winter months.

Over the next few weeks, the group practice will be sharing more information on its social media platforms regarding this, including who will be eligible.

For now, they are asking people not to contact them for bookings as patients will be contacted directly when it is time for their appointments.

The news comes as Covid case rates in Sutton have fallen sharply toward the end of last month after rises earlier in the month had seen the town become Birmingham ’s coronavirus hotspot. 

Sutton Reddicap remains a hotspot, but across Birmingham, the number of cases decreased at the week ending August 1 by 777 cases (3,462 cases this week compared to 4,239 last week).

These were the wards with the highest case rates (cases per 100,000 population) this week:

• Sutton Reddicap (520)
• Frankley Great Park (507)
• Handsworth (488)
• Ladywood (461)
• Kingstanding (456)
• Yardley East (444)
• Longbridge and West Heath (432)
• Garretts Green (402)
• Bordesley Green (402)
• Soho and Jewellery Quarter (394)

Total cases fell in all age groups, most noticeably in the 0 to 19 age group (-36%), the 20 to 39 age group (-18%), and the 40 to 59 age group (-35%).

Cases also decreased in all ethnic groups, most noticeably the White group (36%) and the Mixed/Other group (-31%).

Customers ignore heavy showers

Heavy showers failed to deter hundreds of shoppers who turned up for the opening of the new Lidl supermarket in Sutton Coldfield.

The new car park was packed as curious customers flocked to be among the first to see what the new store in Mere Green has to offer.

During the first week of opening customers were being offered deals and offers on selected products including a Tri Scooter with LED wheels (£8.99) on opening day, a Foot Spa Medisana (£9.99) the following day and a Record Player Dual (£44.99) on Saturday 7 August.

The size of the plot and particularly the room in the car park surprised many customers with ample parking and electric vehicle owners taking advantage of the double electric charging point facility.

One customer, Four Oaks resident Patrick James, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said: “While I was not surprised with the store layout, it seems pretty standard for Lidl, I was surprised at how much parking there is. You could not judge it while it was being built.”

Predicted traffic chaos was not evident as traffic moved smoothly in and out of the new store and the Sainsbury’s car park opposite.

• 

• 

Lidl GB has confirmed that the new store will be providing surplus produce and customer donations to local charities, including Sutton Coldfield United Reformed Church and Hope Food who run food banks to help those in need, as well as Help to Make Tummies Full, who redistribute surplus food to prevent local children from going hungry.

This is delivered through Lidl’s Feed it Back scheme, which is run in partnership with Neighbourly and connects Lidl stores up and down the country with local charities, foodbanks, community cafes and kitchens, putting quality food surplus to good use every day.

The store has also said that it recommends the wearing of face coverings and will provide hand sanitisation for the foreseeable future.

Part of the company’s ongoing £1.3bn expansion and regeneration plans across Great Britain for 2021 and 2022, the store will create around 40 new jobs for the local community. 

The store will be between 8am-10pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am-4pm on Sunday, delivering Lidl’s offering of fresh, quality and great value produce. 

As well as being fitted with solar panels to help power the store, the supermarket will also have facilities such as an 1325m² sales area, an instore bakery, customer toilet and 124 car parking spaces, including 2 electric vehicle charging spaces.

Lidl GB’s Regional Head of Property, Rachel Hargreaves, commented: “We would like to thank all those who have played a part in bringing this new Lidl store to Mere Green. We are delighted to be able to create more jobs and investment opportunities in the area and look forward to welcoming everyone to our new store.”

• 

St Giles Hopice fundraising champion looks to rally support

A hospice hero who cycled 1,000 miles in one month to support St Giles is calling on people to join the Cycle Autumn bike ride this September.

Andy Barker, aged 67, cycled to the hospice and back from his Burton home every day in June (2021), raising £2,467 including Gift Aid. He also donated 100 hours throughout the month as a volunteer to support patients and their families.

Now he is encouraging people of all ages and abilities to sign up for the popular bike ride on Sunday, September 5, to help raise funds for the hospice which gave his wife “excellent” end of life care.

Andy said: “Cycle Autumn is a great event for people of all abilities. You get the keen cyclists taking part who can compete and get their exercise while raising funds for St Giles, but you don’t have to be Tour de France quality. I first did Cycle St Giles three years ago with my sister-in-law. I hadn’t used my bike much at the time – I just jumped in the saddle and took part. 

“I was a volunteer steward at Cycle Spring this year and it was great to see all the families and casual cyclists, as well as more experienced riders, just having fun and raising funds while having a good day out.”

Andy started fundraising for St Giles after his wife Belinda, 55, died of cancer at the hospice in November 2015. She had previously received day therapies as an outpatient and had been having Hospice at Home support until her condition worsened and she was admitted as an inpatient.

• 

• 

He said: “Belinda was in St Giles for 10 days before she passed away and our children and I were able to visit. Belinda had excellent care at St Giles, you really could not fault it. Everyone at the hospice did everything they could for her.

“I then had bereavement support from the team at St Giles, which I found really helpful. My children were also offered support – we all really appreciated the help on offer to us, it was excellent,” he added. “If you reach the point where you need hospice care then you really couldn’t ask for more – you couldn’t get better care anywhere else. The facilities at St Giles are second to none and if you’d rather receive support at home then St Giles will help with that as well.”

This year Cycle Autumn will begin and end at the Whittington hospice with different routes exclusive to the autumn event. Start times are staggered from 7.30am. Riders can choose from four different distances – a 26-mile route for all riders aged 10 and over, a 50-mile route, a 75-mile route and a 100-mile challenge for keen and experienced riders.

Zoe Wright, Events Manager at St Giles Hospice said: “Andy Barker is a fantastic supporter of St Giles Hospice who has really gone above and beyond the call of duty to help us. We hope his words will inspire many more cyclists of all ages to take part in Cycle Autumn.

“We like to give our cyclists a variety of routes that cater for all abilities, and all of our routes take you through the beautiful Staffordshire countryside. We make cycling simple – all you have to do is turn up, follow the signs and enjoy yourself!

“We are absolutely delighted that Cycle Autumn is back, as the event is one of our largest fundraisers of the year – in 2019 it raised a fantastic £43,650.  The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to temporarily close our shops and cancel our fundraising events in 2020 and early 2021, so this September we really need our community to take to their saddles and pedal to raise pounds for St Giles Hospice.”

Entry to Cycle Autumn is £35 with tickets available until midday on Thursday 2nd September. 

The event will retain a number of COVID-19 measures, including staggered start times and maximum group bookings of six people, for the safety, health and wellbeing of all supporters, volunteers and staff.

For further information visit www.stgileshospice.com/cycleautumn email fundraising@stgileshospice.com or call the fundraising office on 01543 432538.

Patients come from across the hospice’s catchment area, which ranges from Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Atherstone in the east, to Cannock in the west – and from Burton and Uttoxeter in the north, to Sutton Coldfield and Coleshill in the south.

Care is offered at the hospice’s centres in Whittington and Sutton Coldfield and in patients’ own homes across the region.

St Giles spends over £10 million a year providing its specialist services and with little more than a third of this funded by the Government, the registered charity relies heavily on donations and income generation from the local community.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

These colourful pictures show the inside of Sutton Coldfield’s newest restaurant which has open-end in Mere Green.

The new Thai tapas-style restaurant, Giggling Squid, took over from a former Italian restaurant in Mulberry Walk, and opened to the public on July 26 and is already proving popular with its novel cuisine.

The Giggling Squid chain, began in the basement of a fishmerman’s cottage in Brighton in 2002 and has grown since then, operating at 38 venues across the UK.